To think the NHS healthy lifestyle advice is unrealistic for most people?

[Theboredpanda]

Just did an NHS ‘healthy choices’ quiz and the results were so negative! Advice like “you’re at risk of harming your health”, “you need to start moving more”, and telling me I should swap full-fat products (like yoghurt) for low-fat alternatives as it could result in weight gain and health complications. I’m early 40s bmi 23, I weight train 3 x a week, play football for 3 hours a week and do plenty of walking. I drink maybe 2 glasses of wine twice a week. I eat mainly whole foods, cooked from scratch, probably 3 or 4 portions of fruit & veg a day, only drink water. I thought I was doing pretty well! AIBU to think the expectations from the NHS about healthy lifestyle are just unrealistic for normal people? Do you think they need to be lowered to fit with what people can realistically achieve? Or do I need to quit alcohol completely, start running 15k every morning, and exist only on chicken and broccoli to get to a decent level of health & fitness?? Also, I thought low-fat foods were packed with sugar & UFPs hence why I eat full-fat. I’m not overweight so I don’t see how this is worse than eating low-fat products

But agree with your frustrations!

I've just filled it in and it said I have too many motivations! 😂 I got 9/10, which surprised me.

I agree. It is a very odd quiz. I scored 5/10, which seems low. One area where I lost points was sleep. I have menopause insomnia. Not unusual for a 50 year old woman and not something I can change via lifestyle factors. Whilst there are definitely improvements I could make to my diet and lifestyle, I’m a healthy weight and in relatively good shape. I eat mostly home cooked food and very little red meat. I exercise but it tends to be Pilates and I am conscious I need to do some cardio - I’m waiting for the local waterlogged routes to be runnable and then I want to get back to running. I’d probably rate myself around 7/10.

Well clearly something else is going on then if that’s the results you got. My lifestyle sounds similar to yours - except I don’t drink alcohol and I eat loads of veg- and my results were positive across the board.

Are you sure you’re being honest with yourself about what you eat and drink?

3-4 portions of fruit and veg is pretty poor. 5 is the minimum you’re supposed to aim for with the most benefits coming from 9+. The gov just says 5+ because it understands that people would find that too hard and so wouldn’t try. They also recommend no more than 1 portion of processed meat a week when WHO and SACN state its best to avoid altogether - but they know Brits love sausage and bacon and wouldn’t avoid them. So they have already lowered the recommendations to what can be achieved.

I agree that swapping to low fat isn’t the best option for everyone but this advice is population wide and the population is mostly overweight and so could do with reducing calories and saturated fat. It does say to choose low fat AND low sugar options. Most low fat Greek yoghurt doesn’t have any extra crap added - that’s just people being lazy and not checking labels.

The government has spent a fortune and done a lot of research using scientific methods and meta analysis to come up with these recommendations. It’s not just guesswork!

I just did it too OP, sounds like we have similar lifestyles. It also told me to improve on food by swapping full-fat milk/yoghurt/cheese for low/reduced fat. I don't agree with this advice for the same reasons as set on in your OP!

I got 8/10. I think my eating is fine…. But the questions are so limited. I ate lentils (not an option) twice yesterday, but I ticked white pasta as I did have it once last week. I need to improve my eating???

And yes I could drink a bit less but I knew that.

Bit of a waste of time tbh.

That’s what I thought - the qus really don’t make sense!

It's bonkers advice

• Swap full-fat for low-fat or semi-skimmed versions.

No thank you. Low-fat yoghurts and cheese are minging. And some are pumped full of other sweetners and additives. I think that's bad advice!

Oh I don't bother with those stupid quizzes.

If I declare my one G&T a week (which is my only dietary vice) I get the patronising comments that I'm doing very well, but would do even better if I cut my alcohol consumption.

Why worry about it if you know you’re healthy? Some people are getting too obsessed with their diet & exercise.

It's a massive waste of money, as is most health education.

Health education doesn't change behaviour. People are fully aware of what is healthy and what is not and actually find people patronising them with advice such 'eat less sugar' irritating.

As Orwell identified : "The ordinary human being would sooner starve than live on brown bread and raw carrots. And the peculiar evil is this, that the less money you have, the less inclined you feel to spend it on wholesome food. "

Food is a pleasure and cheap food is an affordable pleasure.

When the rest of your life is crap, crap food is good.

The only thing that will change food behaviour is either changing the food environment and what is available or taxing unhealthy food beyond the affordability of most people.

Big food won't go for that.

I got 10/10 so obviously I think it's fine!

I scored 9/10 <smirk>.

Apparently my 3x5k runs, weight classes and high step counts aren’t good enough but other than that I’m pretty perfect. It did seem very simplistic though.

Because changing the advice would mean people weren’t healthy anyway?

People not achieving it now because they can’t fit it in/it’s hard work/expensive/time consuming doesn’t alter the facts about what is actually needed to be healthy.

I carry out health checks, the amount of people in their 40’s & 50’s being started on Statins because their Qrisk is high is rising, but many people would rather have a magic pill than take responsibility for their own health, even if time wise they could be healthier.

I got 9/10, lost a point because I eat full fat cheese, yoghurt and milk. They're wrong, I'm right.

I know how you feel OP.

I'm 62, 5'8", size 10, bmi of 23.5.

I run, practice karate and cycle every week. I cook from scratch, avoid cheese, butter, cream and processed sugar. I eat 30 different fruit & veg a week and plenty of fish. I've never smoked, and the last alcohol I had was on Boxing day.

Last week I was told to watch my cholesterol, it was borderline. 🙄 More salmon, fewer sausages I guess.

I think the NHS should give you the facts and leave it up to people to decide what is achievable for them. They already lower the recommendations to 5 portions of fruit and veg a day which they think is achievable, when 9+ would be better and there is evidence to show variety is key to optimal health and not just how many portions you eat.

You’d be surprised with what a lot of people don’t know. Many think that honey doesn’t count as added sugar, or don’t realise that fizzy drinks contain calories, some think that the more red meat the healthier, others don’t realise that fruit juice only counts as a single portion and anything over 150ml a day is considered free sugars.

Just look at tha Tim Spector show or Junk Food Kids or people who think frozen veg is less healthy.

I got 5/10 because I drink too much alcohol, don't sleep great, eat full fat stuff and don't exercise enough.

I could do better but I'm a human, I want to eat nice tasting things and drink alcohol, sometimes life or injury gets in the way of exercise.

Life would be incredibly boring if I did nothing but eat plants, drink water and walk everywhere.

Despite admitting to eating full fat dairy and having occasional stress and anxiety, as well as drinking 2-3 glasses of wine a week, I got 9/10. The only thing that I apparently need to improve is my sleep.

The quiz seems quite straightforward, so I’m wondering why some who claim to have a healthy lifestyle are seemingly getting low scores.

It gave me 10/10 and just said good job.